Guild Wars 2

To increase the traffic in the starting cities, they need only:
– implement a LFD tool
– get all of the city-based mini games they’ve yet to implement up and running
– rotate one of the Daily Achievements between the city-based mini games

Why is there no sigil that inflicts Poison on a critical hit?

Anymras.5729:

As somebody who’s crafted themselves a full Exotic set of gear: Wait until you find out that Dungeon and Temple gears are just as good as stuff you work up to being able to make, with stat layouts that you can’t make.

Makes the whole thing feel like a bit of a waste, really.

Yeah, my armorsmithing Guardian wants to make himself a suit of P/T/V heavy armor. Not only can I not craft armor bearing that distribution of stats, but the Vigil will sell it to me for what I’m guessing is less than it costs to craft.

I find nothing more soul-crushing than spending an hour trying to farm 18 Smooth Scales. I would be jubilant if we could spend Laurels on boxes of 20 fine crafting materials (cost increasing with tier). Make it happen, ANet. Make it happen.

I’m wondering if the ability to get Ascended rings and amulets will hurt Jewelcrafters.

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

As I read it, the Quaggan backpack will be hidden in an RNG box… please tell me it isnt true? Please?
cries

I’m willing to bet a very large sum of gold the backpack will be obtained through an RNG chest of some kind, either directly or indirectly.

Do you think the Maguuma Jungle will ever see new zones added to plug the 25 to 55 gap?

Corth.7069:

Metal uses:
-Heavy Armor
-Weapons
-Sigils/Runes
-Jeweler

Cloth/leather uses:
-Heavy Armor
-Medium Armor
-Light Armor
-Runes

huh, imagine that, more uses for metal.

I fixed that for you. You’re welcome. And low and behold, equal uses for metal and cloth. Which brings us back to the problem at hand…gathering cloth is more unreliable, more time consuming, and more costly than gathering metal.

Dinny.5310:

It’s because asura and skritt have a long, if somewhat bloodstained history. Before Primordus awakened, they both lived underground and constantly fought over resources and turf: they were competitors.

What better candidate for sympathy than a historic rival whom you’ve until very recently considered primitive?

The Blue Ace.2850:

GW2 may have a unique combat system.
But Wow’s story is a thousand times better than this.

(Bring it fanboys!)

Both games have bad main stories, and both games have insufferable Mary Sues. But I personally prefer GW2’s presentation. So, yeah.

Edit: If by “journey” you mean “lfd” and “lfr”, sure.

As someone who HATES the masks and desperately wants a pointy hat, I was thrilled when I saw the Wizard’s Hat on the Gem Shop. Then I was crushed when I learned it was town clothes.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I would be surprised if they went back and added more. Since that storyline step already has multiple options, I would be surprised if ANet considered it good use of resources to “fix” what I doubt they see as broken in the first place.

Exactly what I was thinking. Which is bad news for my skritt-friendly asura. He had a bag full of junk, er…shinnies just waiting to be passed out to the skritt younglings. :-(

SneakyLemon.8461:

AoE type builds generally take less skill to play, I think this change will help PvP immensely. People need to overcome and adapt rather than wish for things not to change.

AoE type attacks generally take less skill to avoid, I think this change will help bad players immensely. People need to overcome and adapt rather than wish for things to change.

Maoric.6132:

This is because if you don’t use AoE for some dynamic events, you get your face eaten off.

Perhaps if we politely ask the waves and waves of enemies who want nothing more than to kill us to form a single file line and fight us one at a time the nerf to AoE won’t be so bad?

Gaudrath.6725:

1. NOTHING deters zergs. People like to zerg. The only way to prevent the zerg from forming is to give each player an indiscriminate damage aura so that they kill anyone coming too close to them.
And even then you’ll just end up with a lower density zerg. We humans like to do it and have been doing it ever since one tribe of smart monkeys zerged another.

Nature teaches us that safety in numbers is an illusion. War teaches us that big explosions decimate packed infantry.

Gaudrath.6725:

2. I have seen videos of ele teams absolutely melting entire groups of people with Flash + Dagger Earth #5 synced up. I have seen concentrated AoE used as killing fields when defending gates…

Assaulting a fortification is dangerous business, bro.

Gaudrath.6725:

…or when enemy players are ressing mates,…

Is there some in-game Code of Military Conduct stating we can’t target combat medics?

Gaudrath.6725:

…making it impossible for players to actually do anything about it.

If you’re ever in a WvW situation where you find it impossible to do whatever it is you want to do because of your opponent’s actions then you’ve either been outplayed or you’re trying to force your will upon a foe who has superior strength.

Gaudrath.6725:

Good luck dodging when your actual goal is in the killing field and you don’t have invuln. skills to rely on.

You don’t need to dodge if you stay out of the killing field.

Gaudrath.6725:

Just because YOU don’t have any bad experiences with AoE, doesn’t mean anything.

Just because YOU don’t have any good counters to AoE, doesn’t mean anything.

Gaudrath.6725:

Statistics say otherwise.

Statistics? What statistics? Link please.

Gaudrath.6725:

And also, AoE requires far less skill and player coordination than single target skills.

And also, AoE requires far less skill to dodge than single target skills. That big red circle around your character? That’s a warning that an AoE attack is imminent. Dodge. Pretty simple, huh?

Gaudrath.6725:

AoE is a shotgun. Just point in the general direction and squeeze the trigger. You’ll hit someone. You don’t have to think about who you are attacking, who is the greatest priority… just drop an AoE on them all and pray for the best.

AoE is a grenade with LED lights and a very long delay before the blast. Anyone you hit was either too stupid to avoid the blast or was the victim of your skillful play.

Gaudrath.6725:

Obviously ANet doesn’t want a “spray and pray” game. The only dumb thing on their part is why they designed so many classes to use nothing BUT AoE.

So now players coordinating AoE attacks is “spray and pray”? You’re reaching.

Calae.1738:

Arenanet pretty much saw the mistake they made with all those AoE abilities. Guild Wars 2 is literally an AoE fest. Nothing screams “skilless noob” more than AoE does.

Single target combo that require precision, timing and setup are fun to execute and requires skill. Targeting the ground from a distance is not only boring but deals more damage than single target; which is completely kitten

What the heck are you talking about? You say all of the above like Elementalists have a choice on whether or not to roll with single-target or aoe weapon skills. Some of you guys…

/smh

BuddhaKeks.4857:

The Asura see the Skritt at best as annoying pests that can be experimented on, at worst as something that has to be eradicated.

I guess that explains all those “Charm” dialogue options I chose with my Asura when dealing with the Skritt.

Alilinke.7690:

“If your skil does 10 damage to a single target, if you have another skill that have the same opportunity cost but deals 8 damage to 5 targets, the AoE skill is better – we don’t want you to use AoE skills on single target mobs.”

So basically Anet didn’t want us to use AoE skills on single targets, sad thing is, they forgot to give us ANY single target spells. :o Silly Anet, why you so silly?

What are you talking about? The elementalist’s staff has…um…well…yeah, we’re boned.

murven.7581:

What you see as unnecessarily complicated and inconvenient, other people who love crafting see as fun and entertainment. If you are part of the first group of people who do not derive joy from the crafting, then you should probably stay away from crafting and just buy the items in the trading post from people who love the crafting process.

And what do you say to the guy who wants to enjoy the Chef crafting discipline without spoilers? Inventory restraints make it impractical at best to hold on to everything you make. Using spoilers to learn exactly what you need to make everything defeats the purpose of the discovery system? There’s an impasse for this person. What do you say to him? Which aspect of the “fun and entertainment” do you advise him to sacrifice?

I finally got my aruran elemetnalist to the point in the personal story where I choose which race I wish to aid. Aaaand…no skritt. Color me sad. When the forces overrun you, Rikitti, blame ArenaNet, not me.

Sirius.4510:

I believe the race selection mostly has to do with geographical location… to find grawl you basically have to run all the way over to charr territory, so they drew the short straw instead of races that humans would have more interaction with.

If this were true then asura would have the option to aid the skritt. I was disappointed when I couldn’t choose to aid the skritt with my asura. They had me at “shinny”

Zantetsuken.9051:

Individual AoE damage isn’t the problem, the problem occurs when 20 players all stack AoEs in the same space. In WvW, there are guilds out there that stack the best AoE classes and can wipe out large groups of players in seconds. This change will make combat in sPvP and WvW far more involved and enjoyable.

Throughout the entirety of military history there have been instances where one force was outmatched by superior strength. Do you know what the did? The good ones adapted their tactics while the bad ones became footnotes in history.

From what I can tell, WvW is supposed to be a tactical affair. Instead repeatedly charging headlong into that large enemy group you know to contain several players capable of inflicting area of effect damage, adapt your tactics.

Or just * and moan about how unfair area of effect damage is and wait for ArenaNet to dumb it down.

Esplen.3940:

The button #6 on your keyboard.

I believe you’re mistaking the Sigil of Bloodlust for the Sigil of Blood.

I’ve painted myself into a corner with Racial Sympathy…

I’ve got five characters, and I’d planned to make different choices in my Personal Story with each to ensure I got to see as much as the game as possible. I’m currently on my 5th and planned final character (until such time as a new race is introduced), and It’s time to choose a race to assist.

The problem is that the only race I’ve not seen isn’t available to this character’s race. I had planned to aid the skritt with my asura, but never thought to check availability. Naturally, the asura can’t choose skritt, leaving me with a repeat. Needless to say I’m bummed.

Should I hold off on this decission in hopes that we’ll latter get the option? Or should I assume the asura’s voice actors didn’t even record the dialogue for the skritt missions and live with the fact that I missed out?

Is there any reason not to use this?

The same reason the dozens and dozens of free Transmutation Stones don’t work on the only gear that ultimately matters (level 80 gear)…to encourage you to purchase things from the Gem Shop.

Thanks for the replies, guys. There are a few things I upon which I should expand.

First, what I’m looking for in this build is the same thing I’m looking for in all of my builds. That is self-sufficiency in PvE of the non-dungeon variety. I’m looking for a balance of offense and defense that puts me somewhere in that sweet spot between “taking forever to kill mobs” and “every fight is a near-death experience”. I’ve not been to Orr yet, but I’m assuming that’s the benchmark for non-dungeon PvEers. So I’m looking for something that can handle that efficiently without fundamentally changing the way I play my character.

Which leads me to my second point of emphasis; I’m wanting to build a character with a “sword and board” playstyle. I have several characters, and I build and play each a different way. So my warrior is a hard-hitting melee character, my ranger is a ranged combat glass cannon, my necromancer is a conditions-producing machine, my thief is an evasion tank (lots of dodging and evading), and I’m playing my guardian as a “face tank” (survival through damage mitigation and health replenishment). I certainly recognize the foolishness of pigeonholing my characters into specific playstyles, but PvE isn’t so difficult that I can’t get away with it (atleast it hasn’t been to this point) while having fun.

I know that asking for tips on optimizing a character and then admitting that I don’t play optimally must seem a bit silly, but I find that forcing myself into differing styles with different characters allows for a fresh change of pace when switching characters (which I after every zone or two…I’ve been in no hurry to get to endgame). So that’s why I’m running the mace and shield while using the staff to tag large groups of mobs when farming DEs.

My thought process is Virtue of Resolve, Faithful Strike, Symbol of Faith, and the defense afforded by heavy armor should keep me standing against weaker trash mobs while my healing skill and dodges (traited to heal upon completion) will be used when necessary. I run an “oh crap” utility skill on each of my characters for those instances when things start to get out of hand, and thus Shelter is on my bar.

For offense, the mace is slow. So to supplement it’s damage I’ve boosted Power through the Zeal line and traited symbols to inflict better damage and Vulnerability. As with an “oh crap” utility skill, each of my characters also has a damage-boosting utility with a short (preferably) cooldown. For my guardian, this is the Hammer of Justice. As with symbols, it too is traited to inflict better damage.

My biggest uncertainty lies in equipping my character once I reach 80. I’m probably going to go with Power for even more damage output and Vitality to elevate my health to a respectable level. After that, I’m torn between Toughness for added survivability against large hordes of trash mobs (of which I’m lead to believe Orr has no shortage), Healing Power to boost my mace’s healing skills and my VoR’s passive, Condition Damage and/or Power to boost the damage increase offered by my VoJ’s passive, or a mix of any/all of these.

Of particular interest to me is whether or not it’s good to load up on three main stats with armor and another two/three supplemental stats with trinkets, or if it’s best to just overload three main stats with both armor and trinkets. Rather than running a bunch of trial and error tests with gear, I figured those of you with “field testing” experience and/or a deeper understanding of the ins-and-outs of the formula regarding Healing Power, Condition Damage, and Condition Duration as they relate to the guardian could save me the time.

Anyway, that’s a more detailed layout of what exactly it is I’m looking to get out of this character. I’m looking to meta my non-meta guardian character for non-dungeon PvE without abandoning what it is that makes distinguishes it from all my other characters. Thanks again for the replies; please keep them coming.

“Part of growing up and becoming a man is going back to an elementary school playground and pushing little kids around to show how powerful you’ve become.”

Yeah, real fun.

Just so we’re clear, you measure how powerful you’re character is by taking on the toughest fights in the game, not the easiest.

Cooking is the craft responsible for creating consumable (never mind the lack of demand for 95% of the consumables we can produce). Replace “Cooking” with “Alchemy” and replace “food” with “potions”, but keep the same number of ingredients, intermediate components, and finished goods. Would you still think the craft wouldn’t have benefited from a bit of streamlining?

Sure, they warn you up front that it costs more coin and karma to level Cooking. But I don’t think anyone’s really bothered by that. It’s the high inventory strain and the excess number of meaningless recipes that I think bug most people.

As someone who enjoys the Cooking discovery process, I’m holding on to at least one of everything I make. This has taken 7.5 of my 8 bank tabs. And I’m not even 400 yet. So my choices are going to be discard a lot of the intermediate components I’ve got clogging my bank and spoil the fun by using the wiki or betray the completionist in me and accept that I’m not going to learn everything there is to learn.

Corth.7069:

‘defending the indefensible’ I never really saw any need to defend anything that wasn’t broken, but I see alot of QQ in this thread.

Funny, because I see a long of white knighting.

Corth.7069:

If you want to play a game that you don’t have to fight to get things, this may not be the game for you.

I’ll remember you said that the next time someone levels an alt from 1 to 80 without stepping away from the crafting stations.

Corth.7069:

Where are the cows and goats that I can milk, and alternatively churn the milk to butter? Where are the arcane blood wells that I can node farm to get powerful blood? Where are the obese skales that can’t defend themselves while I take their armored skales, but leave alive so they grow new ones?

Nice of you to suggest that rare crafting materials should be gathered from nodes, but we’re comparing common crafting materials to common crafting materials. I take this logical fallacy to indicate that you’re all out of things to say.

Corth.7069:

Perhaps the developers dont let us node farm cloth because it was a choice that they saw might have hurt the economy.

You’re not an economist, you just play one on the internet? Pray tell, Mr./Mrs. Economist, how would harvesting leather and cloth hurt the economy? I’m ALL ears for this one.

Corth.7069:

Or maybe, it just wasn’t as fun mining nodes all the time.

Or maybe, just maybe, ArenaNet has taken every measure to allow players to decide for themselves what is and is not fun. If you find farming metal scraps and heavy armor for salvage fun, they’ve allowed you to do that. If I find running a zone for ore nodes so I can actually spend my time crafting fun, then they’ve allowed me to do that. Leather and cloth crafters don’t have the luxury of that decision.

means of obtaining metal
– harvest from ore nodes
– salvage from metal scraps
– salvage from heavy armor
– salvage from melee weapons

means of obtaining leather/cloth
– salvage from leather/cloth scraps
– salvage from medium/light armor

You’re right, there’s no disparity at all. Oh, wait! I just learned to count. This newly acquired skill has allowed me to see that there is indeed a disparity. Hmm, well how do you like that?

Petty complaint incoming, but it bugs me to no end that the highest tier gemstones are Beryl, Chrysobola, Coral, Emerald, Opal, Ruby, and Sapphire instead of Amethyst, Diamond, Emerald, Onyx, Ruby, Sapphire, and Topaz.

I propose the following as a method to allow us a small measure of customizable weapon skill bars.:

Step 1.
You declare to your Profession Trainer which weapon type you wish to customize.

Step 2.
You declare to your Profession Trainer another profession with access to your declared weapon type.

Step 3.
You must purchase from your Profession Trainer a Sigil of Capture, which must be applied to a weapon of the type you wish to customize.

Step 4.
You must use the weapon bearing the Sigil to kill 10 different Veteran enemies matching the profession from which you wish to learn a weapon skill.

Step 5.
You must return to your Profession Trainer and spend 10 Skill Points.

Step 6.
You must then choose a skill from the weapon and profession type from Steps 1 & 2 to replace yours. The chosen skill automatically replaces your skill of the same slot.

Step 7.
Repeat the process if desired, but choosing a new weapon from another profession causes you to lose your previously learned weapon skill.

This would give us some flexibility with our weapon skills without forcing ArenaNet to completely overhaul their skill system. It shouldn’t unbalance things to any worrisome degree. It would be a bit of a gold sink, but those are necessity in these types of games. And it would give us a bit of a reason to use the PvE world.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Criticisms?

KensaiZen.3740:

Search through this forum for examples of builds. They will have descriptions of the synergy and playstyles. It should help you to develop your own build to your own playstyle.

Thanks for the reply. I’m actually looking for specific advice to this build. Rather than searching through scores of AH, GS-offensive, Hammer-control, and full-on tank builds for any pertinent tips that might apply to a balanced PvE build, I’d rather just ask here.

Any tips like “+Healing isn’t worth it unless you go all out”, “you’ll need plenty of +Vitality as a Guardian when you get to Orr”, or “you’d get more mileage out of X traits that you will the symbol-boosting traits” you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Agreed. To help cut out the bloat, I nominate the removal of Grapes from the game. They’re used for a grand total of one (discounting dyes) recipe, while in turn is used in a grand total of one recipe. Can you say pointless?

Koga.7215:

everyone who is out killing will get salvageable materials to get your cloth. only some players make a real effort to find the orich nodes to mine them (we do stop if its in our path, but many do not go out of their way to mine them). this leads to many more salvageable mats on TP (or mats if ppl salvage themselves) and keeps prices even or better for cloth I find.

is it unfair? i dont think so

Again, farming leather/cloth REQUIRES killing, and by extension dealing with RNG, while farming metal does not. Which takes more time? Swiftness-ing your way from ore node to ore node? Or finding areas/events with lots of humanoid enemies and farming? And hoping the RNG favors your?

And it’s like you guys don’t understand at all the concept of opportunity costs. Every single time you salvage light or medium armor for materials, you’re taking money out of your bank. “But armorsmith needs cloth, too” I hear you say. True, but not nearly as much as tailors. So he gets to X, and then sells everything else for profit; while you are required to get to >X.

I really don’t see why you guys are so staunchly defending the indefensible. It’s simple math and basic logic, people. Use it.

Corth.7069:

Just because it’s not easily accessible, doesn’t mean it’s not fair, it just means you have to work for it.

That’s like saying “I’m level 80, where’s my legendary?!” but to a lesser extent. It’s in the game, it’s available, so go get it!

/facepalm

No, it’s not like that at all. Legengaries are supposed and expected to be more difficult to obtain that other items. What, in-game or otherwise, indicates that tailoring should be more difficult/expensive than armorsmithing? Why should one armor-crafting discipline have to work harder/spend more to get the same results as another? Why? I’m begging you guys to answer that question.

Corth.7069:

I dunno…
I reliably get cloth when I salvage light armor.
I reliably get leather when I salvage medium armor.
I reliably get metal when I salvage heavy armor.

That’s wonderful. I always get metal when I harvest an ore node and I always make money when I sell heavy armor to an NPC or on the Trading Post.

Corth.7069:

Why are you kittening when this IS NOT A PROBLEM

Well, if you say it isn’t a problem, then I guess it isn’t a problem. Since, you know, you’re the final word on the subject, even if you’re DEAD WRONG.

Corth.7069:

Farm queensdale if you want jute that’s not bought off the tp, farm in area’s with the relevant level compared to the material you want.

I’ll again issue this challenge. See how long it takes to mine 100 chunks of metal and then see how long it takes to farm 100 scrapes of an equal-tiered cloth. Then come back here and tell me it isn’t a problem.

Corth.7069:

If your having trouble with RNG and getting gossamer, mine some orichalcum, sell it and buy the gossamer.

Let’s dissect your sentence, shall we? You recognize that gathering cloth means either dealing with RNG or spending money. You then acknowledge that metal can simply be mined. Then you tell us there is no disparity between the gathering of the different materials? You seriously might want to reconsider your stance on this one.

I just hit level 65, so I figured it was time for me to shift from “economic” to “optimal”. Until now I’ve been using the best blue gear I find/craft with little thought to optimization or synergy. I did this for two reasons. First, PvE isn’t so difficult as to require a high degree of meta to make it through the zones (I’ve not yet tried any dungeons). Second, most of the gear is outdated so quickly that it isn’t really worth worrying about at lower levels.

But as I approach the 70 to 80 stretch, and ultimately the level cap, I think it’s time to start thinking about optimizing my character. My character is built for (primarily) solo PvE. As such, it is designed with a mix of offense and defense.

I run Mace/Shield when alone, and Staff for DE’s with large mobs of enemies. My other skills are Shelter, Hammer of Wisdom (for added dps), Shelter (for emergency situations), Signet of Judgement (for damage mitigation), and Renewed Focus.

My traits are going to be:
– 30 Zeal: Spirit Weapon Mastery, Eternal Spirit, Wrathful Spirits
– 20 Honor: Writ of Exaltation, Writ of Persistence
– 20 Virtues: Improved Spirit Weapon Duration, either Supreme Justice or Indomitable Courage

As for gear, Power and Vitality are musts. After that, I’m not sure if I want Toughness, Healing Power, Condition Damage, or some mix of the three. So now I turn it over to you fine folks. If you have any suggestions on how I could improve my build, making it more efficient at PvE content, I’d be glad to hear them. Thanks.

Wolfborn weapons look pretty feral.

I have a challenge to anyone who thinks one doesn’t have an advantage over the other. See how long it takes to farm (not buy)100 ore of any given tier. Then see how long it takes to farm (not buy) 100 leather or cloth of the same tier.

Dart Power.9412:

I have some materials that are not shown on discovery tab, like a Venom Sac (see pic).
Am I missing something or is it a bug?

Perhaps you’ve already discovered everything involving Venom Sacs?

TheDaiBish.9735:

I sense a lot of rage building that’s going to manifest itself into a billion threads.

Anyhows, thanks for the update. Looking forward to them posts.

There are petulant children who are going to throw a tantrum no matter what. Make precursors too hard to get, and the game sucks because it requires too much grinding. Make precursors too easy to get, and the game sucks because it panders to casuals. It’s literally a lose/lose scenario. If I were the devs I’d not let the whining cacophony from the peanut gallery sway me too far from my original vision.

Renegade.6325:

Food offers benefits, alcohol doesnt (im talking in game benefits like power).

Achievements points.

Lil Puppy.5216:

Because the only animal in the game that would make bacon is also a pet – warthog – not that that really matters

Just as Red Meat and Poultry Meat are non-specific, White Meat could be non-specific and drop from boars, simioths, and other animals. This, in turn, could be used to make pork chops, bacon, ham sandwiches, BLTs, ham and/or sausage pizzas, raspberry glazed hams, sausages, ribs, and a host of other foods.

Because if there’s one thing this game needs more of, it’s food and ingredients to clog up our banks.

Renegade.6325:

But yeah, why no bacon?! and there’s plenty of bees in the Human zone and there are some bee keepers in the Norn zone so where’s the honey?!

Wasps could drop honey, or perhaps it could be harvested with sickles from bee hive nodes or harvested randomly from trees when logging (or thrown into bags, along with butter, chocolate, and the rest of the leftover cooking materials).

Art.9820:

I don’t think they never state what kind of meat is the one you find in the game…

Exactly. It’s “Red Meat”, not “beef”.

Zapan.7460:

A Canthan district was already built into the game and polished, but had to be removed after negative feedback from the Asian market about the mix of various cultural architecture. Due to time constraints the district was then replaced by the Great Collapse." I laugh when i see that trivia part on wiki, and remember the 1st time i read it… and said “seriously?!”

That’s…

But…

I…

/sigh

Oglaf.1074:

Cloth and leather are secondary materials for those professions, not primary materials as for Tailor/Leatherworker.

Cloth is a secondary material for each of the three armor-crafting disciplines and the primary material for Tailoring.

While we’re on the subject of missing ingredients, why no honey? Honey glazed ham/poultry, honeyed pastries, honey roasted almonds, and of course mead…why no honey? I guess it got the axe to make room for the all-so-useful grapes.

Renegade.6325:

No pork products may exist for religious reasons.

Because the game features alcohol, I doubt this is it. At least I hope this isn’t it.

Pinder.5261:

So all skills do a standardized amount of damage multiplied by duration. This means +damage can increase your overall damage, and +duration can increase your overall damage. Which is better? Depends on the situation. Imagine dps inside a vacuum: we’re hitting a test dummy. A 5 second burn at level 80 with 500 +condition damage deals 2265 damage. 5 seconds at 750, a 50% increase in condition damage, deals 2577. 6 seconds at 500, a 20% increase in duration, deals 2718.

Obviously a break point occurs where +duration will increase your overall damage more than +damage. But this is on a test dummy. In actuality you’ll have to deal with: condition removal, stack ceilings, multi-source application, and the target having died before the duration finishes out. All of which negatively impact +duration more so than +damage. This makes it very difficult to pinpoint exactly where +duration surpasses +damage purely by the numbers.

Very enlightening. Much thanks to you (and everyone else). If I said that my interests lied almost exclusively in PvE, would you be inclined to recommend +Duration for Dungeons and +Damage for Dynamic Events?

Pinder.5261:

Sufficed to say, you’ll always get a reliable benefit from +damage. You’ll get a less reliable, though potentially more productive, benefit from +duration. If you feel you have the leeway to allocate some points into +duration, it won’t hurt to do so. But +duration is your bread-and-butter.

Was one of those "+duration"s supposed to be a “+damage”?

Allowing every character access to all eight crafting disciplines, coupled with a lack of competition over crafting materials, allows for a high degree of self-sufficiency. As a result, the auction house is flooded with tons of undesired equipment. Had we been limited to just two crafting disciplines per character, do you think there would be a bigger reliance upon other the Trading Post, and by extension, other players? Or do you think allowing everyone access to all eight crafting disciplines was better for the game as a whole?

I was under the impression that the formula for each of the three worked in a way that one of the three benefited significantly more from Duration than Damage, and another more from Damage from Duration. Is this not the case?

When I first got into this game, I explored every nook and cranny in every map I entered. I still explore, just not with the “check under every rock and beneath every fallen leaf” level of thoroughness I once did. I would often find Veteran Enemies in secluded areas; a veteran wolf with a pack in a den carved into the side of a mountain, a veteran griffon atop a high peak, a veteran cave troll deep underground at the end of an isolated tunnel.

I always made it a point to fight these enemies. But as time went on, I realized they didn’t drop anything I couldn’t get from any other enemy of the same type. There was no special loot. There was no guarded chest nearby. There was nothing. Now I’m not the type of player who needs a carrot dangled in front of me to get me to do something. Far from it.

But with a little care I think the developers could use these enemies to lure players back into lower-level zones. Perhaps they could be replaced by named versions of the same type (or made to be placeholders for random and/or timed spawns of named versions) that drop special/rare loots or give points/faction rewards for some kind of karma vendor (bounty hunters? hunting lodges?), then people would feel more inclined to spend the time hunting these enemies down.

Just a thought. What do you guys think of the Veterans you come across in out of the way locations (not ones near renown hearts or dynamic events)? Do you take the time to carve your way to and slay them? Or do you simply continue on your way without a second thought? If the latter, what would you like to see done to make them worthwhile prey (if anything)?

As a rule of thumb, which is better for Bleed? For Burn? And for Poison? Thanks.

Tarvok.4206:

It isn’t a sink. A gold sink is when you give money to an NPC and it disappears from the game forever. This money goes to players… but yes. Understand that at low levels, you’re basically paying for skill points. And there’s enough crafters and competing goods in the game that, even for exotics, profits are very, very modest, if they’re even there.

Crafting is basically for vanity, for achievements, and for buying XP. It isn’t unfortunately, a source of wealth.

Spools of thread, lumps of tin and coal, runes of holding, etc. There is an element of gold sink to crafting.